Library / English Dictionary

GRADATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of arranging in grades

Synonyms:

gradation; graduation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("gradation" is a kind of...):

quantification (the act of discovering or expressing the quantity of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gradation"):

blending; shading (a gradation involving small or imperceptible differences between grades)

Derivation:

gradate (arrange according to grades)

gradational (taking place by degrees)

grade (determine the grade of or assign a grade to)

grade (assign a grade or rank to, according to one's evaluation)

grade (assign a rank or rating to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A degree of ablaut

Synonyms:

gradation; grade

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("gradation" is a kind of...):

ablaut (a vowel whose quality or length is changed to indicate linguistic distinctions (such as sing sang sung song))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Relative position in a graded series

Example:

keep in step with the fashions

Synonyms:

gradation; step

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("gradation" is a kind of...):

rank (relative status)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gradation"):

cut (a step on some scale)

Derivation:

gradate (arrange according to grades)

gradational (taking place by degrees)

grade (determine the grade of or assign a grade to)

grade (assign a rank or rating to)

Credits

 Context examples: 

These struldbrugs and I would mutually communicate our observations and memorials, through the course of time; remark the several gradations by which corruption steals into the world, and oppose it in every step, by giving perpetual warning and instruction to mankind; which, added to the strong influence of our own example, would probably prevent that continual degeneracy of human nature so justly complained of in all ages.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

By all the others it was mentioned with regret; and his merits honoured with due gradation of feeling—from the sincerity of Edmund's too partial regard, to the unconcern of his mother speaking entirely by rote.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

As the common size of the natives is somewhat under six inches high, so there is an exact proportion in all other animals, as well as plants and trees: for instance, the tallest horses and oxen are between four and five inches in height, the sheep an inch and half, more or less: their geese about the bigness of a sparrow, and so the several gradations downwards till you come to the smallest, which to my sight, were almost invisible; but nature has adapted the eyes of the Lilliputians to all objects proper for their view: they see with great exactness, but at no great distance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)